Replacing Ounahi: Why Angers must monitor Caen’s Bilal Brahimi – tactical analysis

Every FIFA World Cup cycle, some players deliver standout performances on the biggest possible stage, illuminating their names in lights and ensuring they become a hot topic in the transfer rumour mill.

Angers’ 22-year-old central midfielder Azzedine Ounahi (182cm/6’0”, 72kg/158lbs) is one of the prime prospects to have emerged from Qatar with a soaring reputation going into the 2023 January transfer window. The Morocco star, who moved from Championnat National 1 side US Avranches to Ligue 1 Angers in the summer of 2021, saw his Transfermarkt valuation skyrocket from €3.5m to €15m off the back of his World Cup, as an indication of the effect that the tournament had on his reputation.

Subsequently, we’ve seen the player linked with a move away from Ligue 1’s bottom-placed side, with the likes of Serie A’s Napoli and Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur of the EPL touted as potential buyers.

At the time of writing, Ounahi remains an Angers player but for how long that will last remains to be seen, and it’d be wise of Le SCO to have plans for replacing Ounahi in case an offer that’s too good to turn down comes in for the 22-year-old or if the club believes now is the perfect time to cash in on the midfielder for a hefty profit.

This tactical analysis will focus on how Angers may replace Ounahi. We’ll offer some insight into a player from Ligue 2’s Caen who we’ve identified as a potential fit for the ‘Ounahi role’ in this Angers side: 22-year-old Bilal Brahimi (177cm/5’10”, 70kg/154lbs).

This name will sound familiar to Angers fans, as Le SCO signed another now-22-year-old named Billal Brahimi (two ‘l’s in the first name) the summer they acquired Ounahi. This Brahimi, a winger, was subsequently sold for a hefty profit to Ligue 1 rivals Nice just a few months later in the 2022 January transfer window, where he continues playing his football today.

The Bilal Brahimi we’ll discuss in this scout report is the same age as Billal Brahimi and Ounahi, but primarily plays as a central midfielder, similar to Ounahi, not his namesake.

Brahimi has performed well in Ligue 2 in his minutes, but he hasn’t played every minute of every game thus far by any means and while we feel he’s thrived with his minutes thus far, a jump to Ligue 1 this January may be risky.

This is not to mention Brahimi also only joined Caen this past summer from USL Dunkerque, which could make a January move more difficult for Angers to pull off, though as Nice showed when they signed Billal Brahimi from Angers last January, it can happen.

Still, we feel this player could be an excellent option for Angers to consider, even if he’d take more time to bed into the side than Angers can realistically afford if he’s to help them out of the relegation zone this season, with Le SCO currently seven points from safety. His future should lie in Ligue 1 and Brahimi may be an immensely valuable asset for Angers to invest some of the money from their hypothetical Ounahi sale into even if they are ultimately relegated from the top flight this term.

This piece will provide some analysis of Ounahi’s role within Angers’ strategy and tactics, as well as Brahimi’s role within seventh-placed Ligue 2 side Caen’s strategy and tactics. We’ll compare the two players stylistically and in terms of what exactly they offer to explain why we feel Brahimi is a player Angers must monitor as a potential transfer target.

Data comparison

We’ll kick off this tactical analysis by looking at both players’ respective percentile ranks in key areas (split by ‘attacking’, ‘possession’ and ‘defending’) displayed on individual pizza charts from the 2022/23 campaign to provide a data comparison of the two midfielders.

Starting with Ounahi in figure 1, we can see that when compared with other Ligue 1 players in his position from 2022/23, he ranks very highly in key attacking metrics, including expected goal contributions per 90, shots per 90, dribbles per 90 and opposition penalty area touches per 90; along with some key passing metrics — progressive passes per 90 and dangerous passes per 90.

Defensively, while he wins a fair amount of his duels, it’s obvious that he doesn’t offer a tonne in this area and the slack needs to be picked up by his midfield partners in return for what he can offer the team on the ball.